From his 2010 hit song, “Baby”, Bieber had amassed (by 2013) a 12x platinum rating with an amazing four million downloads/views (within the United States). While I couldn’t find any numbers for China, I can only assume that a portion of the population would also have been caught up in the “Bieber-craze” which is why the following excerpted lyrics from his song are appropriate…

“You know you love me, I know you care
Just shout whenever, and I’ll be there
You are my love, you are my heart
And we will never ever ever be apart”…

Until his alleged “accidental” worshiping at the Yasukuni Shrine, where he posed with a Shinto Priest, had a picture taken of him praying and paying respects to Japan’s fallen soldiers… and posted two of these pictures on instagram.

Bieber was immediately flooded with comments from China and Korea condemning his actions and demanding he apologize… in which case, Bieber “was like”…

…at least to China (his apology post forgot to mention Korea). He claimed he thought Shinto Shrines were only used for praying.

…and they are. This one just happens to be surrounded by controversy since 1985; six years after the enshrinement of 14 convicted Class A war criminals, and about a thousand or so Class B and C convicted war criminals that had been interred after Japan’s surrender.

While I disbelieve the story about Bieber’s “accidental” choice of Shrine, it did help get him back in the news… and any news (good or bad) is good for business… I hadn’t heard about him since his DUI arrest (I guess there was a faux pas with his recent visit to the Anne Frank house I missed… but as I watch Northeast Asia Affairs, it didn’t really make my selection of reading material). If you’ve ever gone to Yasukuni (and if you haven’t, I suggest you go to get a look for yourself at what the Shrine stands for…. Again, the Yushukan is a different story), you will notice the grand size of the place and the gates… plus on Sunday’s they have a huge flea market where you can find all sorts of antique goodies. And if he was even the slightest bit interested in the shrine (since he took time to pose with a priest—generally not available to the public), trip advisor or any other website would have given him the basic history of the locality…not to mention his translator or the rest of his entourage that was probably there.

Aside from this, the other interesting point is that on Monday (at the start of the Spring Festival at Yasukuni), around 150 law makers went to pray at the shrine and Prime Minister Abe also gave an offering to the Shrine. While these events made the news, there was nothing comparable to flood of media gushing forth from Bieber’s “accidental” visit. So, for me – it seems as just a way to get free publicity…and it worked well. Even I’m talking about him 😉

Undoubtedly, this will make President Obama’s Asia—visit a little rockier than he had hoped—as he’s doing his official State Visit, the first done by an American president in two decades. We’ll see what sort of effect this has on China and Korea in the coming days.What are your thoughts on his pilgrimage?

I highly recommend my opinion piece I wrote on Yasukuni, viewable here

Mr. Kimura (really Kinjiro Miyake 三宅金治郎) was born in 1897 and lived until 2012. No doubt you had seen or heard him in the news, as he holds the record for being the oldest (verified) living man, oldest (verified) living person, and first (verified) to reach 116.

Born in a fishing village, with 5 other brothers and sisters. He was smart, graduating second in his class from high school. He earned his living by being a postal worker within Japan, a government employee in Japanese Korea, and returning to farming when he retired.

He saw four emperors rule, and the change over 61 Prime Minister. No doubt, he was a wealth of knowledge.

He passed away on June 12, 2013. If only we could have shared in knowledge before his passing. This is definitely a man we should aspire to try to be.

If you’ve ever wondered how cowardly terrorists can get, this is one of the best (worst) examples.

Imagine yourself going with friends and family to celebrate a religious holiday–in this case “Easter”.

You walk into church (in this case the San Pedro Cathedral, Davao City in Mindanao), your dip your hands into the water to perform your cleansing ritual and listen attentively for the sermon to start.

Shortly after that, (possibly two?) individuals burst in and lob three grenades into the hall packed with worshipers.

The detonations kill about 11 people and wound about 155 (numbers are different depending on which source you look at); with several in serious condition. President Marcos took extreme steps to find the culprits and bring them to justice.

Investigations revealed that the Communist New People’s Army executed the attack, but were supplied by the Moro National Liberation Front.

As the celebration of the goddess Ēostre (or Ostara) draws near again, take time to remember that this is about the fertility of the earth and the rebirth from the winter into the spring.

And from this rebirth, learn to forgive the heinous acts of the few and try to help each other towards a more peaceful cohabitation.

The United States launched 16 B25s from the USS Hornet on a daring attack on the Japanese home-island hoping to boost American morale, demoralize the Japanese and show that Japan was just as vulnerable to air attacks as Pearl Harbor was.

There’s one main difference. The Japanese successfully attacked military targets on the island of Oahu, whereas the American assault did minimal damage while bombing Tokyo, Kawasaki, Nagoya and other cities and mainly hit non-military targets (or missed). The Japanese stated these attacks violated international law as a handful that died were military (operating anti-air craft guns); however, the rest were citizens of all ages including school children. According to the Almanac of American Military History (Vol 1) by Mr. Spencer Tucker, all but one B25s were lost; on the Japanese side 50 people were killed, several hundred injured.

Doolittle was branded a hero, given the Medal of Honor and promoted. On the Japanese side, this attack changed the defensive posture of the Japanese navy and reinforced the necessity of making the sinking the US aircraft carriers their top priority. There were two negative effects that came of this attack; the first was that the Japanese realized the United States was set on using airfields in China–Japan quickly took these over. The second was the Japanese focusing their efforts on Midway, which is known as being the turning point in the Pacific War.

The Republic of China and the Philippines sign a Treaty of Amity, or peaceful relations. As a reminder, in 1949 the Chinese Communist revolution came to a close with MAO Zedong usurping power within China and CHIANG Kaishek (with his forces) retreating to Taiwan (Formosa).
The Republic of China (Taiwan) still honors the treaty they signed with the Philippines, while the People’s Republic of China (China) does not honor it, as it was signed under the previous (illegitimate) regime.

Now, here’s another interesting fact for you. On 9 May, 2013 (fast approaching the one year ‘anniversary’ of a tragedy), the Philippines violated the treaty when a Coast Guard vessel open fired on a Taiwanese fishing boat killing a fisherman-specifically, Article I, which says there should be peace; Article II, which says International Court of Justice will be used over force; and Article VIII, which says each country will protect the other’s citizens. The Philippine government did make an official apology after a long investigation; however, friendly nations shouldn’t be killing each others citizens.

One last interesting fact is that within this treaty between two countries-three countries are actually named. What is this third country, and why is it mentioned? 😉

March must have a correlation with a desire to join revolutions and fight for democracy. On this day in 1863, Mariano Ponce; physician, writer and member of the Philippine Revolution was born in Baliwag, Bulacan. He completed his medical studies at the Complutense University of Madrid (one of the oldest universities in the world).

In Spain, he joined with Marcelo del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena and Jose Rizal among other famous members of the anti-Spanish movement; Ponce worked as secretary of the Propaganda Movement while also heading up the Literary Section of the Hispanic-Filipino Association.

In 1896 when the revolution first started, he was arrested in Spain and once released quickly fled to Hong Kong and worked to create the international front of the revolution. Two years later, Emilio Aguinaldo selected him as an ambassador for the First Philippine Republic to Japan; where he sought aid and weapons—and made connections with Sun Yat-Sen.

His other achievements were directing the “The Renaissance”, creating “The Perfect” organization within the “Nacionalista Partido”, as well as being elected as an assemblyman for Bulacan. He died on May 23, 1918 (55) and is interred at the Cementerio del Norte in Manila.

I remember it clearly. I had just returned back from two weeks of vacation where I had taken my (now ex-) fiancé to meet my family, relatives and friends, as well as sight-seeing. I returned back to Japan on March 9th, and returned to work. A very uneventful Thursday, as I was catching up on emails and work items and continued into Friday… and then around 2:46pm, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the Japanese Northeast — and was felt all the way down in Fussa, Japan where I was. This was the most powerful earthquake in Japan, and the fifth most powerful in the world (per record keeping from the early 1900s). It triggered tsunamis, causing more damage, as well as the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor incident that caused the meltdown and other problems that continue to this day.

I was in the second floor of a concrete building, and still felt the shake. My phone rang immediately and my ex-fiancé called and texted saying she was scared (I lived in a two-story wooden house that would shake during a small earthquake). The aftershocks were to continue for months… sometimes a couple of times a day.

Luckily, upon returning home, only a stone lantern in my yard had been destroyed; but the rest of Japan including some of my friends and my favorite city of Sendai, were not as lucky. When I lived in Misawa (Aomori-prefecture), for work and for play, I would travel down to Sendai at least once a month. One of my dear friends was shopping in a clothing store when the water rushed in. I lost contact with her for a month–though luckily she had found an Emergency Shelter and told me how she and her husband had been without hot water and electricity for a month.

During this time, I had tried to volunteer to help in Sendai; but instead was requested by United States Forces, Japan (USFJ) Command’s Crisis Action Team to translate documents they had received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from the National Police Agency, which detailed the extent of the damages to Japan’s highway system and the procedures required to bring aid within the Sendai city limits. I still wish I could have done more, but USFJ ensured me my translations had helped save lives.

I visited Sendai around October or November of 2011 and could still see the devastation within the city and the surrounding area. I don’t have any pictures — as I just couldn’t find it within myself to document the devastation that I saw. Even if I were to go back in time… I would make the same choice.

Even in Tokyo, I remember the roaming blackouts… these were scheduled, but still created a frightening mood. I found myself arming up more (wearing my gun), as memories of Katrina flashed back where there were mobs running in the streets, vandalizing and robbing stores (not just for food); however, Japan was the complete opposite. People waited patiently in incredibly long lines at the train station, just trying to get to work. Even in the small suburb that I lived, there were 300+ people waiting in lines to head toward Tokyo. I can only imagine the wait in a bigger station like Shinjuku. The streets were calm at night and the people came together.

While this tragedy occurred three years ago, there are some people that have still not recovered. If you feel the need to donate money to a charity this year, might I still suggest the Japanese Red Cross Society. More than 20,000 people were either killed, injured or reporting missing since this event, with massive damage throughout the Touhoku area.